IOC Fellow Lara Adekeye Reflects on Summer with City of Boston
Working Towards a More Resilient Boston: My Summer as an IOC MORRE Fellow
As the Boston University Initiative on Cities and Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground Summer 2017 Fellow in the Boston Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE), I worked with a team that pioneers Boston’s efforts to respond to and deal with catastrophes that may affect the City of Boston. When challenges arise in the city whether economic, environmental, or physical, racial inequity is a persistent factor that intersects all of these issues. The MORRE office recognizes that ensuring racial equity has to be a priority in efficiently addressing shocks and stresses for all Bostonians. Although I participated in various tasks throughout the summer, my main task was aiding the Resilience team with the completion of Boston’s first Resilience Strategy. Called ‘Resilient Boston,’ the Resilience Strategy includes the input of over 11,000 Bostonians.